Nutritional Consequences of Drug Therapy

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a growing awareness that treatments with drugs of widely differing chemistry and pharmacological action have the potential to cause nutritional deficiencies. The drug-induced deficiencies may range from overt depletion with clinical manifestation to sub-clinical deficiency, depending upon one’s nutritional status at the onset of therapy, the type, dosage and duration of drug use, the presence of predisposing disease, and the age of the patient. The actual incidence of drug-induced nutrient deficiency is, indeed, difficult to identify, since cause-and-effect relationships between the offending drug administered and the nutrient deficiency are difficult to prove. However, there is evidence that certain specified drugs induce deficiencies of specific nutrients, and that these deficiencies occur following long-term, high-dose administration in susceptible patients. Many of these drugs may alter taste perception, reduce absorption, increase excretion or interfere with the utilisation of nutrients.